Meat industry wants Ottawa to cut off cash for anti-cancer agency

Members of Canada’s meat processing industry are asking Health Minister Jane Philpott to consider pulling Health Canada funding from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) after the agency issued a controversial report that classified red and processed meats as possible carcinogens.

“Health Canada puts funding into the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We as an industry are concerned about the process and in effect the confusion created,” Rory McAlpine, a senior vice president with Maple Leaf Foods, told Philpott in a Q&A session at the annual Canadian Meat Council meeting in Ottawa.